sovereignsteve

It's strange the way it goes sometimes, I've had great success at NGC with fulls and doubles but for some reason, I can't get a PF70 half for love nor money🤔

And the results were?

Haha Good old ****, I haven't heard mention of him for donkeys years! Oh FFS!!!! "DickEmery"

Not being arsey, but if you have the coins in your hand, the best thing would be to do the spade work before you ask others to spend time doing what can be a time consuming exercise, carefully studying photos of coins to spot good fakes. Carefully measuring the dimensions and weight may well tell all you need to know. Obviously, if they are rubbish fakes then experienced eyes such as @LawrenceChardwould spot them from Blackpool without the aid of the internet, and also would spot a decent fake if he had the coin in hand.

All analytical techniques have their own accuracy and precision profiles. Some of the former issues can be remedied by calibration but precision is more inherent in the scienctific principles and technology employed. The data you quote shows a clear bias but it is not clear if this was because of a calibration drift or some issue with the physical coin surface or other issue. The data is very precise. It would be interesting to see a corresponding study employing various times of assay. Would the measured data vary around the final settled value? ie show a large CV, imprecision? or would you see a gradual rising or lowering of the reading until it settled?

Having been a scientist all my life with experience in all sorts of analyical techniques, I am intrigued and quite surprised by what @LawrenceChard says about the time aspect of XRF assay. I have no experience of XRF but would be shocked if it took 10 seconds or more for the readings to settle down to their true levels. I would be really interested to see some time plots as suggested here🤞

Really surprising the differences in diameter. I was always under the impression this aspect of sovereign production was as tightly controlled as weight. One or two of those might well fail the size test. One assumes they are all genuine?😅

yes, it's far too bloody crowded here, and some people just want to keep adding to it, but that's another story.

nice

also cheaper to go through a parcel "broker" like parcel2go etc

Shouldn't have to do it but it's better to pay the tenner extra for a courier like Fedex, they seem to get far fewer losses. Maybe it's due to putting the custom docs in a separate envelope on the side or under the address label in the plastic window. Not visible to casual inspection.

I thought they were the same.

I believe the best gold seam in the UK runs from Northern Ireland northeast into the southwest of Scotland but I have heard of some turning up in parts of the Lake District.

It wasn't so bad before internet buying as only local buyers had the chance to inspect and buy. In general you had local buyers without a clue and paying too much from auctioneers who were also clueless.😁 it did open up opportunities for local buyers who did know what they were doing though🙂

The non-specialist auction houses shouldn't be selling coins at all as they haven't a clue as to authenticity etc.

Surpisingly, I actually like the James coins. They are much better than the Henry. So much so I am thinking of keeping one!

So are you saying you cannot distantly buy unless you attend to inspect the goods? Even then, do you have to check the coin for metal alloy? Do you have to take a XRF analyser with you or will they let you acid test it? All of this is plainly absurd, surely they have to take responsibilty for making sure PM coins are genuinely PM? Is asking for a condition report classed as "inspecting the goods"? Are they liable for the accuracy of a condition report? Do they really want 50 people asking for a condition report of the type "Is this real gold, is it a genuine sovereign?"

As I understand the law, you can put whatever you like in your T&C, it doesn't make it lawful and enforceable. There are certain checks and tests for fairness that must be adhered to and certain aspects can be clearly contrary to a specific law of the land. Consumer law is quite prescriptive in many areas. Also, by offering their auctions to online bidding, it may be they will come under certain distance selling regulations. All of this will be uncertain until it is tested in court. This is obviously unviable unless you have become a victim of "fraudulent" auction descriptions. I say this simply to advise that anyone in such a position shouldn't meekly accept their T&C without a fight! I once bought a couple of 1902 crowns from an auction in the midlands. When I received them it was clear they had been misrepresented as they both had brooch clips on the reverse. The only photo on the listing was of the obverse. They took them back no problem.

How do you do that? If they advertise it as "this looks like a sovereign of year xxxx but it could be a lump of random gold, or not even gold", then I can see the validity of their T&C. I still say if they advertise as "a 1917 London gold sovereign", then it will have to be genuine, or they are breaking the law.

I would have thought their low estimate was a sure indication they had no idea of it's rarity, not it's authenticity. It would be interesting to see the result if their T&C were ever tested in law. I can't believe they can simply wave away their responsibilty to describe their goods correctly and not to bear any responsibilty for selling conterfeit coins of the realm!

oh dear, not looking good

Perhaps you should offer to sell your superior images to the RM, or anyone else for that matter?

I see what you mean, the obverse does look more SOTD BUNC than proof

In the past, the privy marked kooks were never as popular as the oridinary ones. Not sure how they fare these days or what the mintages are but I prefered to collect the proof issues rather than a load of bullion ones with just different privy marks.

Is the orange man still around?